22.3.12

speaking of pantone...

For the longest time, red was the only warm color I could really get behind, sartorially speaking. I think because neither yellow nor orange look particularly beautiful on me, as is the case with most people of caucasian descent, IMO. Or So I Thought! But Im an idiot, because in this, the year of Tangerine Tango, I finally realize: the orange-based red that Ive come to love (poppy, I call it, if you want to know) is actually a redder shade of orange. Go figure! This color-epiphany was brought about by my quest to replicate the look frequently modeled in the J. Crew catalogues delivered to our house on what felt like a weekly basis last Christmas. You know the one I mean:

OMG, those lips! Beautiful, no? And so I set out to find this lipstick. As far as I can tell, the nearest matches are as follows: Nars Semi Matte lipstick in Heatwave; OCC Liptar in Queen (which is what the models actually wore for J. Crews last runway show); and Poppy King, made by Lipstick Queen for J. Crew itself.

All three are listed either as orange-red or coral--which, admittedly, is sort of a pink/orange hybrid, but its still more orange than red. Then I thought about it a little more, and realized that the perfect red of my imagination was chiefly inspired by Ariels hair color in The Little Mermaid, which also, looking back, is pretty obviously orange (but, when people have orange hair, you call it red; hence my early confusion). I know it doesnt sound like a big deal or anything, but it comes as a shock to me because I always thought that I hated orange. When I was a kid I felt bad about it, because it was the one color I didnt like, even though Orange never really did anything to deserve it. Poor, poor Orange!